Photography Website Design Basics | Setting up a website for your business is definitely not what it used to be! Just a few years ago, it was a complicated, expensive task with no clear return on investment. Nowadays, it’s a completely different story thanks to technological advancements and a considerable drop in prices – and pretty much everyone has a website. Even brick and mortar stores can benefit from having a professionally designed website that showcases their inventory and provides the potential client with all the information they need.

However, not all websites are created equal! The truth of the matter is that most photography websites out there are not only unappealing but are actually doing more damage than good. Your website is often the first interaction people have with you and your photography business. That means it’s a make-or-break opportunity to turn a new visitor into a loyal client for life. Not sure what it is that makes a photography website an effective conversion tool? We’ve got your back covered – read on to find out everything you need to know about setting up a website that gets you hired!

Keep It Simple | Photography Website Design Basics

We could say this in a thousand ways, but we’ll take our own advice and keep it simple: cluttered websites not only look bad but are incredibly difficult to use. Sure, websites like Amazon can afford a bit of clutter, as the users learned the layout and how to use the website. However, if a potential client lands on your website for the very first time and doesn’t have the slightest idea where to go next, or how to get from one point to another, they won’t stick around for too long and try to figure out how your website works.

If you’re considering setting up a website, chances are you already have a goal or two you’d like it to help you achieve. Is it to grow your client base? Gather email addresses from your potential clients? Or just showcase your work? Set a primary goal for your website and make it obvious for your potential clients to figure out what they should do next. Don’t make it hard for your visitors by setting up a complex, flashy website that only overshadows your work and frustrates your visitors.

If your primary goal for your website is to grow your client base, you’ll need to provide your potential clients with everything they need in order to convert from a visitor into a paying client – and contact details are one of the most important, yet often overlooked elements. Think about it – a visitor goes through your portfolio, likes your style and now wants to book you. If you don’t feature all the most important contact details on each page, whether in the footer or the header, the potential client will try one thing – check out the contact page in the navigation menu. If there’re no easily accessible contact details, they won’t try too hard to figure out how to reach out to you – instead, they’re more likely to move on to another photographer.

Ensure Readability | Photography Website Design Basics

More and more photographers decide to launch a blog on their websites as a part of their search engine optimization strategy. A regularly updated blog will help you improve your search engine rankings, but search engines aren’t the only ones that like blogs – your visitors love blogs as well! However, if you’re hoping to get the most out of your blog, you need to keep the usability and readability in mind! For example, while viewing photography on dark background is much more enjoyable, reading long paragraphs of white text on a black background can be tiring – so you’ll need to find a way to display larger amounts of text using dark fonts on a light background!

You’ll also need to pay attention to the font itself! While there are countless fonts available online, bear in mind that sans-serif fonts are much easier to read on computer monitors because the screen resolution is not as high as in print. If you use serif fonts for normal text, the serifs can blur together on the screen making them hard to read. Of course, you can use serifs and more complex fonts for emphasis here and there, but your main font should be as easy as possible to read!

Optimize For Seamless Performance | Photography Website Design Basics

The number of people using mobile devices to access the internet is about to overtake the number of people using desktop computers – and the number of devices and screen sizes available has never been higher! With that comes a new challenge: your website needs to look stunning on all of the devices, no matter the screen size! This is where responsive design comes into play – it’s a development technique that will make sure your website adapts to every screen and take advantage of all the available screen real estate.

Think About Your Calls To Action | Photography Website Design Basics

This takes us back to your website’s ultimate goal – don’t leave any guesswork to your visitors. Instead, tell them what you want them to do. This is best achieved by using calls to action – buttons or links suggesting an action to the visitor, whether it’s to view the portfolio, book a session, or subscribe to your newsletter. Just make sure you don’t overwhelm your visitors with too many options – keep the number of calls to action to 2-5 per page.

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Testimonials

I had been following Media Novak’s work for a while now and was always impressed with their logo work. The logo designs they came up with based on my wishes for what I wanted it to look like were above and beyond what I had imagined. The process itself was smooth and so easy. I gave input and they took it on board and applied it to the next design. I would highly recommend them any day!

Chantal Lachance-Gibson Photography

I cannot begin to say enough about Mark & the team at Media Novak. Their customer service has been TOP NOTCH! They have gone way beyond my expectations and dreams and have put together a website for me that I am so proud of… I actually can’t believe that it’s mine! If you are looking for a new website or new branding then look no further… contact these guys today!

Myrick Cowart – Photographer

Thank you thank you thank you! I really appreciate all of your help and your quick replies and editing, and well, everything. I will DEFINITELY be referring your team! I love my new logo and I love that it is completely my own and completely encompasses my brand. I really appreciate all of the time and effort your team has put into this project. Thank you again and again!

Bethany Petersen – Photographer

I decided to hire Media Novak after seeing a friends logo that I really liked. I sent them my ideas but I actually preferred one of their original concepts over my own ideas! They really understood the look and feel I was trying to achieve and I am delighted with my new logo! I found the process to be really enjoyable and smooth and emails were answered very quickly… a big thumbs up from me!

Karen McGowran – Photographer

Media Novak were helpful and listened to me as the client… never once tried to push their likes onto me… but they do offer good advice. I think what has mattered most to me was once we went live, they were very much still around to iron out little problems that only became noticeable to myself with the daily running of a website and a blog! I would highly recommend them to other businesses!

Jo-Ann Stokes – Photographer

Media Novak designed a beautiful website for me and I’m very satisfied with it. They listened to what I wanted and tailored the site to fit me and I really appreciate that. Their prices are reasonable and the quality is fantastic. I would highly recommend this company.

About Us

MediaNovak is a creative design agency that specializes in web design, online marketing, graphic design and corporate identity solutions. We started our company with some basic ideals—offer our customers exceptional design, while delivering a positive customer experience.

These ideals have helped grow our business and drive customers to our door. A majority of our business comes simply from “word of mouth” referrals—one customer telling another of the experience that we offer here. We consider this the ultimate compliment.